Tablet for Kids

Being exposed to too much screen time, be it a TV, tablet, video game or computer, and even smartphones, is extremely dangerous and easy to fall for both children and families in general.

Leading a sedentary life can result in high blood pressure, obesity and a multitude of additional health problems. It can also hinder time that would be better off spent sleeping, doing homework, reading or even engaging in active play.

In this regard, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that children that were under two years of age shouldn’t be exposed to screens at all, while older kids should have their time limited to a max of two hours a day, preferably less. However, this advice has recently been updated to reflect the following information.

Guideline for children screen time:
● From 0 to 18 months of age: you should only allow video chatting (this is in cases where one of both parents need to travel and be away from the baby, or if a relative lives far away and face to face meetups are nearly impossible).
● For toddlers, between 18 to 24 months of age: you can let them view high-quality programming as long as you view it together with them.
● For preschoolers, between 2 to 5 years of age: they shouldn’t watch over one hour of high-quality programming a day, and you should watch it with them.
● For kids, 6 years of age and higher: there is no specific time limit, so parents will need to set their own screen time limits and set the guidelines on how much time should be spent using media and what kinds of media. Also, they should make sure children are still getting enough sleep and physical activity, as well as remain healthy in all other aspects.

So as a parent, how can you go on to set those limits and keep them consistent as well? Today we’re going to share ten options to achieve this and you’ll only need a couple of them to make things work.

Get all screens out of the bedrooms

Make sure all computers, TVs, and videogames are kept in the common areas instead of children’s bedrooms. This will keep them from disappearing into their bedrooms for hours. By sharing screen time with the rest of the family you can also keep an eye on what they’re watching and for how long.

This can be a bit trickier when it comes down to smartphones and tablets. So a good rule of thumb is to charge these devices overnight and then keep them in the common areas, instead of the bedrooms. This was they won’t interfere with their sleep.

Also read: how to discipline your child in using tablets and the internet

Make some days or hours “screen-free”

Some families have found it much easier to keep children away from screens on school days, weekends between a couple hours in the afternoon or during the summer. It’s very important, though, that mealtimes are completely screen-free, even for the parents.

Using simple rules like this one can help you avoid having to decide on a daily or case-by-case basis how much screen time is enough. Children might meet this rule with some resistance, as natural, but they’ll eventually accept it like any other rule.

You can also take advantage of technology in order to fight technology, and use tools such as the Torch or Luma router, or a router plug-in like “Circle” by Disney. These tools let you control for how long and at which times your family’s devices can stay online. It can also limit which apps and sites they get access to.

Define how much screen time is too much

Make sure you define how much screen time a day or a week, you consider enough for your children. You can set something as one hour a day on weekdays and then two on the weekend, excluding screen-time used for homework.

Explain this to your children calmly and clearly, ensuring they understand why you’re setting limits: too much time sitting down has a negative impact on their health. If you have younger kids, tell them that it’s not good for their bodies and brains. Also, assign and share the consequences for breaking these rules ahead of time.

Give them alternatives

Motivate your children to go on walks, play outside, ride bikes, or even play active games indoor instead of letting them use their screens. A great way to accomplish this is by playing with them.

You can also communicate with them and work on creating a custom list of screen-free activities that they can have fun doing. You can then refer to this list when they’ve had too much screen time or to keep that from happening.

Want some useful tips on making screen time educational? Check out these apps that will help them learn

Use incentives according to their age

Adapt your strategies to limit screen-time to your kid’s age. So if you have a preschooler, make sure you offer distractions so if you tend to let your child play on your phone or tablet while you prepare dinner or take a shower, try finding an activity she/he can do next to you, instead.

If you’re taking a bath or shower, have them color the tub or a paper outside, using washable crayons. If you’re cooking, have them help by tearing up lettuce for a salad.

If your children are school-aged, then you can make screen-time a privilege that they have to earn (we will elaborate on this below ). Also, make sure you plan play dates often so they don’t get a chance to complain that they “don’t have anything to do”.

For teenagers, set a rule that you’ll have the right to remove access to electronic devices and/or the internet if their household duties are not taken care of, or if their grades slip.

Have them earn their screen time

Instruct your children that they’ll have to earn their screen time by finishing their chores, homework, practices, outdoor activities, etc. The simple way is to let them enjoy their screen time only after their homework and chores are done, but also with a max limit.

You can plan this in many ways, to keep it fun. Give them chips or tickets for each accomplished deed that they can then cash in to use the tablet and/or play games online.

Teach them through your actions

Remember that being a role model to activities you want your kids to mimic is much more powerful than simply telling them what to do. If you’re constantly watching TV or leaving it on as background noise, and check your phone every time you’re idle, it’ll be almost impossible to enforce your rules on your children.

Give your kids some level of control

Let them choose what they want to watch on the tablet and at what time, as long as it matches your guidelines regarding screen time. Try not to abruptly turn off their tablet or ending their video game at the middle of a level. Give them warnings and give them a chance to turn them off themselves.

Guide them to producing instead of consuming

If your children really like movies, video games or video streaming apps, motivate them to switch roles and become content producers and make their own entertainment. Recommend creating a choreography, staging a fun battle or entertaining comedy routines.

Tablet Parental Controls

Aside from active control and limitations, you can make use of tablet apps that can help limit your child’s screen time. Thankfully, we have a large variety of apps to choose from:

Dedicated screen time apps

You can use apps that automatically set the limit for the time children can be on their devices. These apps include Boomerang, Kids Zone Parental Controls, Screenlimit and MM Guardian. We also have “Screen Time” which has a nice balance of control and features for about $3.99 a month. You can also use Google Family Link.

You simply need to install the Screen Time app on the tablet your children will be using and the parental version in your phone or tablet. Your version will let you set daily limits for specific apps, ban some of them altogether, request approval before installing new apps, have defined hours during which the tablet can be used and a “freeze” button that pauses everything while you talk to them, so you can be distraction-free.

The added benefit is that it lets you create a list of tasks that your kid can complete in order to earn more screen time. So if they get their tasks out of the way, they earn extra time on YouTube or Netflix.

Their main benefit, though is that the conflict is directed towards the app, instead of the parent having to argue with their child consistently, for the device. And you can test out the app first to see if it suits you since it offers a 14-day free trial.

You can also resort to the parental controls already included in Android devices in order to restrict screen time without any additional applications. If you’re not convinced by Screen Time, take a look at the below:

Spyzie Parental Control

This parental control time limit app for Android can help you limit the time your children spend on mobile devices. It’s perfect for monitoring their online activity as well as setting a limit on the amount of time they can be on the tablet. This app is compatible with both Android and iOS. It also works with a large range of mobile devices from Sony, HTC, Huawei, Samsung and more. You can check their list of compatible devices to confirm if yours is also compatible.

This app has a comprehensive set of features which make it a popular app. It’s been endorsed by Forbes, CNet, Daily Mail and other popular media outlets. If you want one app that can both limit screen time and monitor usage, this is the right choice for you since it can:
● Check activity on social media.
● Limit screen time.
● Monitor calls and SMS
● Check location in real time.
● Track keystrokes so you know what’s been typed
● Monitor events on calendar
● Capture screenshots on your child’s device

FamilyTime Parental Control

This is a great app to limit screen time on Android devices since it lets you monitor what your child is doing and also place limits on what things they can do. It lets you control what they do and for how long they can use the tablet. Extra points since it’s free and lets you get additional features that are paid.
● Receive activity reports
● Get SOS or emergency alerts in real time with location
● Ability to block games and apps remotely
● See what apps are used most often
● Set limits for how much time is spent on the device

Kaspersky SafeKids Parental Control

This screen-limiting app was developed by the makers of the popular antivirus software: Kaspersky, and it gives you the ability to completely control your children’s mobile devices.

Kaspersky Safekids lets you limit the screen time and monitor everything remotely. So you can easily set restrictions and monitor what your kids are doing from your own device. This is very convenient for parents since they can keep tabs on everything while they’re at home.
● Create personal lists of blocked apps
● Monitor your child’s usage via your personal account and device
● Keep track of text message and calls
● Receive notifications when suspicious activity is detected
● Keep track of Facebook activity
● Works on Android OS
● Is easily affordable at $14.95

Establish real-world restrictions and incentives

Circling back on what we mentioned before, it’s always better to make sure you set the restrictions on screen time instead of passing all responsibility on to the software and/or tablet.

Many people have shared their success with the use of family device-free days. It’s pretty simple since all family members just need to stay away from technology for a day and interact with the other members of the family with no technology whatsoever.

These days are much better if you plan a game session together. It can be either full of physical activities or simple board games. You can spice things up as much as you want to keep it interesting.

Are you sometimes concerned or amazed at how fast your 4-year old child learn stuff? Well, to tell you the truth most parents do! The fact of the matter is that kids even as early as 24 months old are already capable of deductive reasoning much like the Bayesian mathematical probability model. Scientists think that this is how children are learning faster than adults, or perhaps adults are just more naive as they grow up than little children are.

In relation to this essential data, the internet is now probably the most common place where people go to for acquiring knowledge and information. However, the internet does not have safeguards or protocols that will protect your child from accessing information that is detrimental to their health – particularly their mental health. But the good news is that you can be the safeguard for them! What you need to do is to teach your child how to safely navigate the web when using tablets and the internet.

Also read: what to do if your child is addicted to their screen

Here are 5 crucial tips that you must learn, as a parent, in guiding your child in using the internet:

1. Make learning fun to do – You may have spotted the word “discipline” in the title of this article, but that word doesn’t mean that you’ll be hard on your kids while you teach them new things. Like the internet, for example, while there are many not-so-very-nice things out there, it can actually be a powerful tool to build up your child’s intelligence and logical reasoning. The key here is, when using tablets and the internet, don’t make it seem like a classroom setting for your child. He’s already been bombarded with semi-dictatorship style of learning in school and the last thing he wants from you is a similar experience. Loosen up and have fun as you help your child learn new things on the web, even if it’s those silly online games. It is a big deal for them and it will also help their development as you spent time with them.

2. Do not tell them more than what they need to know about the internet – DO NOT EVER TELL THEM about the sad and gloomy stuff on there, like terrorism or the lewd things that are not even appropriate for their hearing at their age. Be responsible with the information you share with your child – even if it’s just the briefing time when you inform them of how you navigate the web. What sites to visit, what games to play, what they should and should not do while using tablets and the internet.

3. Learn how to use parental controls on tablets as if you were the one who made them – It’s sad to know that some parents do not take this seriously. I’ve heard a few times that some child inadvertently accessed a gambling or disturbing news video on certain websites and had caused the child to have PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) or a negative outlook about financial management as a result. This could have been avoided if the parental controls were calibrated and did what it was supposed to do to exactly prevent such things from happening. So the best thing for you to do while using tablets and the internet is to read, memorize, practice and master the device settings of the tablet you bought for your child. This will help you protect your child from potentially harmful information on the web.

4. Watch your child while he or she is using the web – You being present while your child navigates the web is very important not only for his or her safety, but it also helps them appreciate you spending time with them as it builds strong affections between parents and children. This will instill the thought in the child that you are someone who they can depend on for anything and they will see you as their hero too! They will not only learn right from wrong, which creates their moral compass, but they will also understand why certain things are right and some are wrong. In time your child will not only grow knowledgeable, but also wise.

5. Be supportive and talk to them about what they’ve learned each day – Each day your child learns something new. Whether it’s educational or recreational it can be useful to their development and you, as a parent, have a responsibility to help the child develop and mature and become a responsible and reasonable person that they ought to be. So encourage them and cheer them up every time they’ve succeeded in reaching a new level in the games that they’re playing, or when they found out that matter is made up of tiny stuff called atoms, etc. etc.

Conclusion

Once you’ve implemented these subtle disciplines on your children when they’re using tablets and the internet, then you will be amazed at how this parent-child relationship works. You’ll be able to bond with them at the intellectual and emotional level and your kids will want to be like you when they grow up. You will be their hero as they’re growing up and sure enough, they will be the bright and responsible adult that you’ve always wanted them to be.

Read more: how to limit the screentime on your kids’ tablet

“Giving your child a smartphone or a tablet is like giving them a gram of cocaine.”
– Mandy Saligari, Harley Street Clinic Director and Addiction Therapist

This is rather a very disturbing news coming from someone who has been treating drug addicts for years! Who knew that technology could lead to certain addiction? I mean, this isn’t like caffeine in your coffee that has a slight potential to make you a coffee addict or simply just being addicted to video games. This has been equated to be “as addictive as” 1 gram of cocaine! And you give that to your kids. Let that sink in for a moment so you could understand the implications of this study.

We here at Tablet For Kids are very serious when it comes to technology/gadget addiction and child discipline, which is why we highlight this new research in hopes to save lives – of children no less.

A tablet can be very educational if you use it properly and you definitely MUST find a way to limit screentime and make help your kid to use their devices in a responsible manner.

Treating Gadgets as Harmless
Doctor Saligari said that the problem with smartphone or tablet addiction is that parents often overlook the fact that these things appeal so much to the human brain as chemical drugs do. It’s not to say that parents are to blame, rather the lack of information about the harmful effects of gadgets on people is the main reason for such neglect. Manufacturers of these electronic devices have only one driving motive and that is profit. So they may not proactively instruct their marketing department to create campaigns to raise awareness of this kind of addiction, which is, sad to say, becoming more and more rampant nowadays.

With all the billions of dollars that go into the pockets of these electronic giants, they may even consider suppressing the information about gadget addiction instead of helping proliferate it for the benefit of their consumers. Since that is the case and the fact that you’re reading this article (whether you’re a parent or not yet), you have the moral obligation to control the use of smartphones and tablets by your children. Safety first as I always say!

Identifying the Triggers
There are ways to find out if your child is starting to become addicted to his or her smartphone or tablet and once you’ve identified these triggers, then you can come up with methods to counter the addictive effects of the gadgets. I could say that the difference between the children’s upbringing of my generation is somewhat disproportionate to today’s kid’s upbringing, and I’ll go out on a limb and say that it isn’t progressive in the general sense. If anything, most of the children’s development in just about every society nowadays is closer to degenerative in some sense. Although there are some kids that had become very good in adapting to the information technology that has become the way of life of every modern society today.

Here are some signs and symptoms of smartphone/tablet addiction:

• Spends a lot of time on their smartphone or tablet
• Interacts less and less with their environment and prefers isolation
• Sleeps late because of using their smartphone/tablet browsing the web, hanging out on social media sites and live streaming videos and music
• Wakes up very late and does not eat breakfast
• Deteriorating health condition due to improper diet
• Becomes either an obese or malnourished
• Rejects hanging out with their friends or hangs out with friends who are also gadget addicts
• Rarely makes new friends or attend public gatherings to build a social life
• Does not understand what playing outdoor kid’s games is or finds it boring
• Has virtually no physical exercise to improve health and wellbeing
• Is somewhat depressed or is already suffering depression
• Fails in school or have been caught cheating by their teachers with the culprit being their smartphone
• Has trouble doing their chores, because they prefer to spend their time with their smartphones or doesn’t do their chores efficiently due to, again, their tablets or smartphones
• May have had put themselves in mortal danger at least once, because they’re so focused on their gadgets instead of carefully observing street traffic while crossing the street, falls off an open manhole, or a ditch

If you’ve noticed your child behaves in certain ways that result in even half of what was mentioned above, then seek professional help immediately! An addiction therapist in your area would be the best person to go to and ask for help.

Ways you can Do to Prevent Smartphone/Tablet Addiction
Smartphone or tablet addiction is not beyond help, in fact, you can prevent it if you guide your children to the right path in life. I think it’s safe to say that a parents’ love will see their kids through anything even certain addiction. Yes, your love and bond with your family members is stronger than any addiction or problem that you’ll encounter in life and you will overcome it all together. Here are some ways you can dissuade your children on not to be on their smartphones/tablets all the time.

1. Keep communications open – talk to them often and try to be their best friend more than just a family member, so you’ll be updated with everything that happens in their life. This way you can spot red flags and immediately remove it from their daily routine or divert their attention from it to more constructive ways of living.
2. Go on family picnics regularly – let them see the beauty of family bonding via camping, hiking, fishing, kayaking or any other exciting outdoor activities. This will help reduce stress and encourage them to want to do more stuff other than just sticking their faces on the screens of their smartphones or tablets. In time they may even influence their friends to try out what you’ve been doing as a family and, who knows, help their friends get rid of their gadget addiction too!
3. Encourage them to join sports activities – whether in school or elsewhere where sportsmanship spirit and camaraderie is emphasized take them there and have them join that sport. This will help build their confidence, make new friends, build their social network outside of Facebook or Instagram, and become better individuals in the community.
4. Lure them to health concealed in your delicious meals – okay, maybe they’re not all that interested in healthy diet or vitamins, minerals, essential amino acids, green tea and other food that’s beneficial for their health; however, if you’re clever enough, you can make them eat healthy foods without them even noticing it! Kids often prefer junk food and fastfood over real healthy food, because they are being targeted by ads from tv, radio and even the web that they access daily through their phones. So you can’t just outright tell them to stop eating junk food lest you want to be branded as Hitler or a communist dictator of the house that is. You need to slowly and in a friendlier way convince them that what they’re eating isn’t healthy and why they need to eat real food. From a simple mango oatmeal breakfast smoothie to a maple salmon or the flavorful of the ginger-glazed mahi-mahi and other amazing yet healthy recipes that you can find! I highly recommend AllRecipes.com for tons of recipes which are submitted by members from all over the world. You’ll have an endless resource of healthy recipes to entice your kids with!
5. It’s still okay to let them use their smartphones/tablets – but you may want to impose some soft restrictions on their use so as not to let them go beyond the recommended limit that could potentially make them addicted to the device. Maybe set a limit of 2 hours a day for using their gadgets and then teach them to be responsible kids on the rest of the day, but don’t forget to make it fun. Discipline doesn’t have to be boring or puts you on a stiff situation where you become the bad guy.

Closing Notes
It seems that we have an unacknowledged stigma from the smartphone industry that still eludes the mainstream media, don’t we? Information is crucial in making people realize the danger that gadget addiction poses to people, especially to our children; or it will get so bad that we’ll just wake up one day with tech addicts walking around like zombies. Or worse, what if we’ve all become zombies and never wake up from this virtual reality nightmare, which had replaced reality? Thankfully we can still do something about it and that is to create an awareness about it one person at a time. I admit that even though I’m writing about how to prevent smartphone/tablet addiction, yet I cannot escape the fact that some of you (or most of you) are still reading this blog post on their tablets or smartphones.

Hypocritical of me, I know, but like I said using such devices is not wrong at the very basic level as they were designed to help us access information, and we need information to survive in a technological society. I’m merely pointing out what Dr. Saligary found out in her research and that is to help children avoid being gadget addicts. Thanks for reading and don’t forget to drop a comment below.

Also check out these tips to make your tablet more child friendly

The Google Play Store contains more than 600 apps designed for toddlers. Not only is it important to only allow your child to have screentime for a certain amount of time but it is also important to know what the child spends this time on.

Besides, you don’t want to download apps that would take a bite out of your money every time. Some apps can become quite costly! In this article you can read more about the hundreds of toddler apps for Android that are available, to hopefully make the choice a bit easier.

Toddler and screen time.

Official guidelines about how long a child may spend time on a tablet do not exist. Although advice on the topics pro’s and con’s are found everywhere online. In an article written by the NRC, the opinion of Delfos, a phsychologist can be read. The core of the story is about ‘boundries and accomaniment’. Het most important thing to watch for is the affect it has on the behavior of the child, to determine how long he or she can spend on the tablet. It is very important to install the right app to be able to determine this.

The App Store

The Google Play Store offeres thousands of apps which contain more than 600 specifically for toddlers. This many opportunities can make it hard to make the right choice. Luckily, every app is divided in to categories.

To be able to view the toddler apps, you click on the categorie “family”and the sub category “up to 5 years”. You will now be able to see three different tabs:

• The Homepage shows you paid and free apps and sorts them in to very clear categories: fun apps & games, recommended for you, educative apps, brain games, action games, roleplay games, shapes & colors, early learners, puzzles & games, music games and fun creatures.
• The popular items will show all available apps that are based on popularity. You can fist make a choice if you want to see the paid or free section of apps, which after you will see all the available apps.
• The tab New Releases will show the newest toddler app for Android. With this tab you have to choose paid or free apps as well before seeing the available apps.

As we said, there are apps that you pay for and free apps. The apps that cost money usually rein between $0.99 and $8.94. This is a fee that you pay once that makes the app available at all times on your device until you decide to delete it.  The apps that are free often contain advertisements to get the costs of the app out of the game that you download. Before you download an app, it is always important to see if the app offers “in app purchases”. This means that after you play a few levels you have to pay to be able to keep playing, to unlock the rest of the game.

Before you click the download icon in the store app, you will always be able to see if it is a free or purchasable app. Watch for this before your child gets excited for an app you might have to pay for later.

3 best apps for toddlers

1. Youtube kids is free and contains advertisements. It is a toddler friendly version of Youtube that, as the makers describe it, offers a safe and more simple way for children to explore the online video world. It is a passive way of exploring. If you want your child to play actively itself, the next few apps might be a better choice.
2. Funny food is free and offers in app purchases. This popular and educative app contains different games within the app and is focused on learning shapes, sizes, colors, sorting, counting, comparing and more. The down part about this is that after a few games it does asks for a fee to keep playing the game and unlock more possibilities.
3. Kid Brain Trainer is a free game and contains (even though the description says otherwise) advertisements. This too is an educative app who focuses on the development of the child by playing different games like memory and spot the differences.

In short

It is not so much about how long your child plays on his/her tablet, but about what your child spends its time doing. Between the hundreds of toddler apps available for Android, there are a few things to concider. Free apps can contain advertisements of can be asking for a fee after playing for a while. Paid apps often don’t contain advertisements, you download (and pay) just once and keep the game for ever. Always read what it says at the description before downloading.

There are many different apps for passive and active learning behavior. To decide what the best choice is for your child, you just have to see and try different apps to see in what way it affects your child’s behavior. At least now you know what to consider when choosing an app for your toddler!

Also check out these top tablets for toddlers

With the rising of technology in the past few years, tablets are almost impossible not to think about in society. Tablets these days have the same aspects as computers and laptops, but they have a much easier use because of their size and the use of a touch screen.

Hospitals, schools and companies: the tablets are used everywhere, for instance to keep up administration, to learn and even to keep an eye on financial situations. Almost every household has a tablet, if not multiple. Because of the tablet being used so much these days, it is logical for kids to be in contact with these devices as well.

Parents don’t usually care for this idea, mainly because they can’t really keep an eye on what their child does on the tablet. The fear exists that kids will see things the parents don’t want them to see. This is totally reasonable. Although there is lots you can do these days, because most tablets have different options to make a tablet “child safe”.

How do I make my tablet child safe/ kid friendly?

To help you make sure your child is safe while using your tablet, we will give you some simple tips.

To make your tablet child safe and kid friendly, you can use these 10 options.

1. Protect the App Store
2. Install a special internet browser
3. Make a special kids account on the tablet
4. Protect your tablet with a tablet cover
5. Make YouTube kid safe
6. Buy a special kids tablet
7. Download a “kid zone” app
8. Buy a screen protector
9. Use the “hold screen” option
10. Put a password on your tablet

I will explain how to put these steps in to action more precisely down below.

(Also read our post about educational apps for kids to make your tablet an educative work station or read our guides about buying a safe tablet and cover for your child).

Tip 1: Protect the app store

It does not matter if you have an Apple, Android or Windows tablet; every operational system has an app store in which you can download fun and handy applications for your tablet. The danger with this is that you child can download whatever it wants, even if you as a parent wouldn’t want them to. It also happens that a child will be able to buy apps from the app store without him/her noticing.

As a parent you also won’t notice until it’s too late, or until you get a big bill sent to your home. Thankfully this is very easy to prevent. Each app store is different, so we will talk about each app store separately and explain how you can prevent these things from happening.

If you have an Android, it is easy to protect the Google Play Store. Open the Play Store app and open settings. Search for the option “content filter”, here you can choose what can and can’t be downloaded on your tablet.

Simple right?

If you have an Apple tablet, it is just as easy to protect your App Store. You can do this by opening the settings. You press general and scroll down to where you see “limitations”. Click this and choose “apply limitations” or something similar.

After you have done this, you can easily turn off sliders like “install apps” and “buy from the app”. Do this to be sure you won’t be surprised.

Tip 2: Install a special internet browser

As a parent you might think that the internet browser is the most dangerous zone for your child. In this app your child can look up whatever it wants, the internet won’t know any limitations. However, luckily it is very easy to limit your Childs access to the internet.

All you have to do is download a child safe internet browser. For Android tablets we recommend the “safe browser” app from the Google Play Store.

Download the app on your tablet, this will able you to do things like put a password on the internet and block certain websites on the tablet.

This way you can be sure your child will be on a safe internet browser.

If you are the owner of an Apple tablet, we recommend the “MetaCert Browser” app. This app automatically blocks more than 700 million inappropriate websites and also filters images and videos.

As a parent you will also be able through these apps to watch exactly what your child is doing on the internet. Very safe indeed!

Tip 3: Make a special kids account

Another handy tip is to make a special kids account on your tablet. At this moment it’s only possible to do this on an Android tablet with an Android version higher than Android 4.3. So if you are an Apple user its best to skip this tip.

The good thing about having a kid’s account on your tablet is that you as a parent can choose exactly which apps your child can and cannot use, what your child can and cannot look up and so on. This will save you a lot of time because it’s faster than downloading all these “child protection apps”.

The safest way is of course to make a special kids account and to download only child safe apps. This way you can be sure that you child will be safe while using his/her tablet.

A special kid’s account is super easy to make. Start by going to settings on your regular account. Click “users” and press “add user”.

You’ll be seeing two options: user or limited profile. Choose “limited profile”. After this you will see a long list of which you can choose which apps your child will be able to access.  Use care while choosing these apps to be sure your child won’t be able to do unusual stuff on the tablet.

Click continue and you are done making the special kids account. To switch to this account simply close the screen and press the logo in the right top corner of the screen. There you can choose to use the newly made limited profile. Now your tablet it all ready to be used by your child!

Tip 4: Protect your tablet with a tablet cover.

This tip won’t prevent your child to see or do something inappropriate on the tablet. However this tip is still very important to be sure your tablet won’t break after a couple weeks of using it. A tablet cover will prevent the tablet from breaking when being dumped.

The amount of times I’ve heard about kids accidentally tossing their glass of lemonade all over the new tablet, the kids dropping the tablet or anything similar is beyond counting.

It’s a shame, because these things are easy to prevent and you can hardly blame your child for these sort of things. They are still kids and will be clumsy every now and then.

There are a lot of great tablet covers available for regular prizes. A lot of tablet covers will fold in a certain way to make the tablet stand upright. A lot of people find this very handy.

Let’s look for example at the “Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7 Book Cover”. This tablet cover offers a whole hype of different options for a reasonable price. Just make sure when buying a tablet cover that you buy the one that has the right size for your tablet. Our tip would be to quickly Google  “your tablets name + cover”.

This way you can be sure that you are buying a cover that is suitable for your tablet. We wrote a whole article about tablet covers that can be handy in this case!

Tip 5: Make YouTube kid safe.

An average of 1 to 2 kids will watch YouTube videos daily.

YouTube is crazy popular and will just keep growing. There is a big chance your child will be watching YouTube videos on your tablet. But how do you know that he/she won’t be watching anything weird or inappropriate? YouTube now has a suitable solution to this problem; Safety Mode.

The safety mode that YouTube uses is pretty simple and uses information collected from the database from YouTube and the opinions of all YouTube users to filter out videos on YouTube. This system however is very new to YouTube so it is not without flaws. It will however make sure that your child will not be recommended any video’s containing violence for instance.

The safety mode is easily turned on in a few easy steps. You start by opening the YouTube app or opening the website on your tablets browser. First, log in to the YouTube account that you want to make safe.

Scroll all the way down and go to settings. Click on “safety”. Now it will give you the option to turn on the safety mode. Click this to make YouTube a bit safer.

If you let someone else use YouTube later on, you only have to log out of that YouTube account and log in to their own account. Pretty simple I’d say.

It is nice to know that at the moment, Google is working on a special YouTube app that is specially made for kids. This app will be called YouTube Kids and will contain tons of different options for parents to choose what kind of videos their child will be able to watch.

This app may already be available in your country, so be sure to look it up in the Google Play Store!

The special YouTube kids app will have options like “kids profile, blocking search options and viewing history”, this will only make the app safer for your child. Like I said, the app might be available in your country, but it will still be in a test phase.

For more information on YouTube kids, you could go to kids.youtube.com. We also wrote an article about kids tablet and the YouTube app.

Tip 6: Buy a special Kids tablet.

Maybe you think all the things you have to do to make your tablet child safe is very complicated and you would like for these things to already be installed. With the making of the kids tablet this is actually possible. A kids tablet is pretty much the same as a regular one. The kids tablet usually runs an Android operating system and is optimalised for children.

As parents it is super simple to apply settings to a kids tablet about what they can and cannot do. However, this is not mandatory, for the tablet already comes installed being kids safe. This is why a kids tablet is very handy when you are unsure if you are handy enough to put in all these safety options yourself. But where do you buy a kids tablet and which one do we recommend?

A kids tablet is very easily available on amazon.com or at best buy, target and even walmart. There are kids tablets available for not too high of a price. The average price for a kids tablet is between 50 and 400 dollars. However, a higher price does not necessarily means that the tablet is better than a low price tablet.

We recommend a fairly cheap model: the Kurio Tab 2. This is one of the few tabs that have the child safety features and all the kid related internet features-at the same time it serves as a great android tablet. It has a very decent look and comes with a factory bumper case – which is rather streamlined and this makes it look sleek. This tablet is on the market for around 80 pounds.

Tip 7: Download a Kid zone app

Another great tip that can help making a tablet child safe is to download a special “kid zone” app. As soon as you download one of those apps, the tablet will switch over to a completely new safe environment that only contains material and apps that are appropriate for children, this often also contains apps that are very educational. You can think of this as a zone that has educational games, fun stories and funny videos for kids.

A good kid zone app that we recommend is the app called “Kids Mode” made by Samsung. Download the app in the Play Store or App store and open the app. You will automatically be directed to a virtual safe playground for hours of entertainment for the kids. The environment has friendly 3D figures. The child can click on these figures, the figure will take the kid to a game arena to play lots of fun and educational games.
Sadly, these apps are not available for the Ipad, it is limited to Android tablets only. Although the Ipad has lots of available apps to download as well.

Tip 8: Buy a screen protector

Another maybe smaller tip we can give you is to buy a so called screen protector for your tablet. This is a see through stick on piece of plastic or glass that you put on top of your tablets touch screen to protect it from scratches. Buy this together with a tablet cover and your whole tablet will be almost completely safe from accidents! Just like you do with buying a tablet cover, it is also important to watch for the size when looking for a screen protector.

Especially with screen protectors it’s important to get the right size. If you buy a size too small it will not cover the whole screen, but if you buy a size too big it won’t fit at all. This will still make for scratches to appear on the screen. A good quality screen protector will cost anywhere from 10 to 30 dollars and is easily available at amazon.com. In total protecting your tablet will cost you around 50 to 60 dollars, but believe me when I say it is definitely worth protecting your Childs tablet, this way you won’t have to jump at every bump it makes because it will have protection around it.

Tip 8: Use the “hold screen” option

It may so often happen that you as a parent is still working away on your tablet when your child asks if it may play a quick game on the device. You might be almost done so it wouldn’t be a problem, you just want to make sure your kid doesn’t accidentally edit or delete any of you work documents. How can you give you child access to the tablet for a quick game without making a whole new profile and everything?

This is possible thanks to the option called “hold screen”. It might be important to know that this option is only available to Android tablets that contain an Android version of Lollipop 5.0 or higher. If you have an Apple or Windows tablet this might not be an option for you. On your Android device, go to settings and type in the search bar “hold screen”. Click on this and it will tell you exactly how to get this option set up. Now your child can play a quick game and you can be assured he/she is not able to reach your work documents.

Also check out our post on the best tablets for toddlers

Tip 10: Put a password on your tablet

Maybe the best tip out there is to simply put a password on your tablet, one that your child doesn’t know and can’t guess. If you don’t have this it is highly likely for your child to just grab the tablet whenever he/she pleases. Without a password, when your kid has the tablet in hand, he/she can access the whole tablet without you knowing. By putting a password on your tablet, this will not happen.

Because of this, your child will have to ask a parent or adult to unlock the tablet itself. This way you can be sure of knowing when your child has access to the tablet. This is the best solution because you can easily know when he/she wants to play on the tablet, plus you get to sit next to your son/daughter and watch them play and explore.

Since you might be sitting next to or close to your child when he/she is playing on the tablet. You might be able to give your kid some tips on how to work the tablet and together explore new fun and educational games for them to play. This way your child will learn from you how these devices work, later this might make the step to for instance a smart phone a bit easier.

A password is very simply put on any tablet or device. For an Apple IPad you can put the password in by going to settings and selecting “touch ID and code”. On an Android device you can make this change by going to settings and pressing “safety” and continuing on to “screen lock”. You can choose if you want to put in a pattern, word or number code as a password. We recommend a letter word password because it is not as easy to guess for children.

Conclusion:

The fear that some parents might feel when they think of children exploring inappropriate stuff on a tablet is not necessarily bad, but it is something you shouldn’t worry about too much. Of course caution is always good when using a device that is connected to the internet, but by following our tips you might find it easier to rest when your child is playing on their tablet. It might take a small investment for a tablet cover and screen protector, or even a special kids tablet. But putting in the settings to make the tablet child safe are completely free.

Putting a password on the tablet, downloading a special kids app or making a kids profile, there are plenty of options to let your child explore at their hearts desire on the tablet without the parents having to worry. We wish you good luck with all these tips and if there are any that we might have missed, or tips that you yourself find very handy, please leave them for us in the comments!

Also read: 9 tips to make your tablet child friendly